Another Christmas
by TalulaJones
Summary: Damon spends a Christmas without Bonnie.
1. Another Christmas

" _How long do I have to keep this thing on," Damon asked his wife referring to the black bandana she had tied over his eyes._

 _They were standing on the crumbling brick portico of the two hundred year old Tuscan villa where they resided, the summer wind encircling them both in the scent of fresh dirt and olives._

" _Until I say you can take it off," She said, grabbing his hand from fiddling with the bandana and intertwining her fingers with his._

 _He didn't have the heart to tell her that the way the sunlight was hitting his face that he could still see through the cloth, and he could clearly make out her bright smile, round green eyes and the crown of delicate white flowers she had woven into her brassy curls._

" _You're ready?"_

 _She led him as if she were really leading the blind, even though with his additional heightened senses he could have followed her with ease, but he enjoyed her caring for him, telling him to watch his step as they descended the stone stairs and squeezing his hand to assure him she would not let him go._

 _There's had been a quick marriage; in some social circles it might have been referred to a marriage that was forced by the barrel of a shotgun, but Damon gave no fucks about such propriety._

 _No one attended their wedding but the priest he had compelled and their non-English speaking housekeeper._

 _A phone call was made to Stefan after the cake was sliced and the rice was thrown and only at the behest of his bride._

 _Damon just wanted to show up in Mystic Falls and shock everyone by their matching rings._

 _She had done most of the talking, gushing over the day and expressing how sorry she was that he and Caroline couldn't have been there. And he had heard Stefan say how he wish he could have been there too and that they should plan to visit soon, and before he had hung up, she paused and said, " Stefan, we have more good news, are you sitting down?"_

 _They stopped walking and he reached for her shoulders, pulling her to him to brush his lips over the top of her head, "What is all of this for?"_

" _Happy Birthday!" She squealed, undoing the tiny bow, the bandana falling into her hands._

 _Under one of the blooming olive trees was an elaborate spread of plates filled with artisan cheeses and fresh fruit lain decoratively on a patchwork quilt, along with a picturesque wicker picnic basket and a sweating ice bucket chilling two champagne bottles._

 _Out of the 167 years he had been on this earth, he had only celebrated his day of birth a handful of times. The most of those few birthdays he could remember being acknowledged were when he was a human, and they were only special because his mother made a spectacle of the day, waking him up with a birthday cake and a grand dinner in the evening with fireworks. After her death there was no one around to make a big deal about the day, and after turning into a vampire the reason for celebrating another year of life had seemed moot since there would be no end to his existence._

" _You don't like it," She frowned._

" _No, baby. I love it." He whispered, looking over at her thinking she resembled an angel in her flimsy white cotton dress and her flowery halo. He planted his lips on her forehead and ran his hands down her hips and over her swollen belly. "I just haven't had a birthday party in a long time."_

 _She smiled and made him sit while she fed them both stuffed figs and shards of milky cheese and filled the hour with her laughter at his smart ass comments and making him touch her stomach whenever the baby moved._

" _How old are you today?" She asked after making him blow out a single candle on a chocolate cupcake they both shared._

 _He pulled her on top of him wanting her to straddle his lap, "I stopped counting, "He lied, licking the bit of icing at the corner of her mouth before sliding his mouth down her neck._

 _She giggled, pushing his face away playfully, "Wait, I have a gift for you."_

" _I thought I told you I don't like presents."_

" _I thought you knew by now that I don't listen to what you say."_

 _He smirked and grabbed her shoulders, kissing her, "Stop pushing me away."_

 _But between kisses he was able to hear her say, "It's a girl."_

 _If he had needed air at that moment to breathe, it would not have been available for he was too elated to do such a thing as inhale._

" _We're having a girl?"_

 _She nodded her head._

 _And he could feel the swell in his chest, the pain of too much tenderness, and he grabbed her hand and placed if over his heart, "I'm a lucky, lucky man."_

He opens his eyes to the cold sunlight beaming through the frosted window over his cold white chest. And he closes his eyes, trying to recapture the dream, bits of memory and longing, his subconscious working out the absence of his love.

Rolling his head to take in that he is in fact in his old bedroom in Mystic Falls, he sees the empty bottles of Jack Daniels scattered over the Persian rug and the remnants of his smashed cell phone strewn around the bedroom and there is a sudden drop in his stomach, the realization all over again that his wife is dead.

For three months he wandered the halls and rooms of his former home like a ghost, revisiting a life that existed before her, drinking and passing out and wondering how a vampire kills himself.

At his side is a black silk robe, it is spread out as if the woman who it had belonged to was going to emerge from the bathroom and slide into it.

Damon had lain next to it in the middle of the night.

It was the only thing left of his wife's that still had her scent, and seeing it makes him curl into the position of a child, bringing his knees up to his chest, clutching the cloth in his fists while he yells her name.

It is Stefan who hears him cry out for Bonnie at the front door of the Salvatore Mansion

BDBDBDBDBDBD

Merry Christmas. I missed writing and I really don't know where I'm going with this but this story jumped out of the soup of my imagination. It was also was sparked by Prince's "Another Lonely Christmas". Hope to have chapter 2 up soon.


	2. Hello

" _Hello," he said to the elderly shop owner, "I'm looking for Bonnie Bennett."_

 _The dusty voodoo shop bell rang throughout the tiny store-front as the glass door closed behind him._

" _And who you?" She asked; her weathered brow arching as she beckoned for him to come closer to the counter._

 _Damon flashed a smile, "Her best friend."_

 _Coughing back a chuckle, she waved her hand about, "Then wait right here, best friend. Bonnie went to go pick us up some gumbo for lunch. Just you sit right there, while my grandson and I finish this game of Uno."_

" _Skip." Damon heard a small voice say to the older woman as he took a seat at the square table positioned in between two long racks of books ranging from metaphysics to ancient aliens._

 _He handled the cardboard sign propped on the table that read,_ _ **Tarot/Palm Reading $20'**_ _, and stared down at his own palm, tracing lines that traversed the span of his hand and smiled wide as he heard the tell-tale rang of the doorbell._

The coffee grinder whirs and the microwave beeps.

Stefan is in the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets, possibly searching for a clean mug to mix up the curious concoction of human blood and espresso.

There is a fracture in the ceiling and Damon points a finger in the air, following the jagged line that reminds him of a thunderbolt.

How long has the crack been there?

" _Six years" he answered when she gushed on and on about how long had it been since they had seen one another._

 _She placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed, "I can't believe you are here," She smiled, "This is the place to come when you need to set your soul right," She said and her green eyes darkened to the color of moss, and they were tender and wise, but, they had always been wise, but maybe not so tender, at least not when they were aimed at him._

 _They were sitting in a sleepy bar at the edge of the Quarter, clinking glasses of bourbon, reminiscing over the war years and playing old rock tunes from a refurbished juke box._

" _It was strange at first, you know," She said, twirling the ice around in her empty glass, "I could go out and be normal here, I wasn't expected to save the town, I could just be a regular girl here."  
_

" _But you're not a regular girl."_

" _You're right, and I'm also no longer a girl," She said, smirking and asking the barkeep for a refill._

 _He imagined all the scars and wounds she might have accumulated over the years just because she happened to be born a Bennett, the luck of the draw, and he was happy she was now living somewhere she didn't have to save anyone._

 _Catching up on the wooden barstools he learned she earned a degree in Comparative Religion and Occult Studies from Tulane, and had digitized her familial grimoire which allowed her to pull up a spell on her iPad, and every first Friday of the month, she held a feast at her home for a small group of spiritual practitioners such as herself._

 _He stared at her, proud of the woman she had become._

 _After a few sips in silence, she finally asked what had been hanging over their heads,_

" _So I take you didn't find that loophole you were looking for."_

 _It was rare for Damon to feel shame, but he felt the mass of it in this throat and he swallowed back a full glass of bourbon and said, "No, I never found a loop hole because I never looked for one."_

 _Even with all her practice at remaining cool and collected in the face of danger, he noticed the slight twitch of thick lashes and the miniscule enlargement of green pupils._

" _So what have you been doing all this time?_

 _He smiled, "That's a good question."_

Stefan is opening curtains, and Damon is pushing himself up on his elbows, babbling about how the roof could come crashing down on them at any moment and how the boarding house is a relic that is falling apart and maybe they should just demolish it and cut their ties with this god-forsaken town.

He reaches for one of the bottles of whiskey that still has more than a swallow, and tells Stefan that that is exactly what he was going to do.

There would be a wrecking ball come Monday.

" _But why olives? I thought you would have a vineyard of all things, you know; try to find a way to justify your drinking?" She smiled._

 _No, no I don't detect any judgement in that statement at all "He snirked, "It takes more money and marketing and sucking up to nobodies to get wine noticed. Olives, my dear. Olives is where it's at. Plus, I don't need the money but it will give me something to do. My life isn't fighting crime anymore Judgy, I just wanna live a peaceful existence, in my luxurious villa in Tuscany, dating a hot model or two, and hanging out with my dog._

" _You have a dog?  
_

" _I'll get one.  
_

" _All you need is a pick up and you are gonna sound like a country song."_

" _Does Ferrari make pick-ups trucks?"_

 _They both laughed and it was one of those moments where he felt like he was having a beginning, a fresh start and it was peculiar because he knew Bonnie, he knew her very well._

" _Who is gonna help you pick all those olives?_

" _I don't know. I haven't thought that far," He said, side-eyeing Bonnie for raining on his parade, "I can do most of it, maybe hire some local people._

 _She slapped her hand on the bar, "Tell you what, at harvest time, I'll come help. How much are you paying?"_

" _I'm gonna pay you in olives."_

Stefan is running the shower, the water beating against the porcelain.

Soiled sheets are being tossed from the bed, bottles are being placed on dressers and nightstands, and even a fire is now crackling in the bedroom hearth.

 _She had to leave, her lunch hour was over and she needed to get back to the shop._

" _My flight leaves in the morning, only here for one night, "He said wagging his brows._

" _Does that work on anyone?"_

" _You'd be amazed," He said, pulling her into him for a hug._

 _Had he ever held her like this, he thought.  
_

" _It was good to see you, Damon."  
_

 _He told her not to be a stranger and scribbled his number and new Italian address on a cocktail napkin and they hugged again, and he watched her leave out that sleepy bar, and watched her cross the street through the dirty bar window until she finally disappeared around the corner._

"Damon?"

The whiskey bottle at Damon's lips is quickly replaced with a piping hot mug of blood laced coffee.

And Damon stops staring at the ceiling long enough to finally notice his brother, who is a breath away from his face, giving him that look, that look of how fucking sorry he was.

"Why are you here?" Damon asks.

"It's Christmas Eve. You need to be with your family, brother."

Author's Note

Thank you so much for your favorites and reviews, it really warms my heart. This chapter was totally inspired by Tracy Chapman's "Be Careful of My Heart". I am all about the angst in this story and going back and forth between the present and the past, so be prepared for more.


	3. New Orleans

_Coltrane blared from modern speakers carefully rigged to the portable dusty record player. The worn album crackled and popped beneath the strain of the needle adding a melodic imperfection in those silent breaks between the blare of the tenor sax._

 _Damon listened for those low hisses and scratches on the record; he thought the way they interrupted the jazz masterpiece was nothing short of beautiful._

 _As he unpacked a life that spanned almost two centuries, he was positive that no other Coltrane album sounded exactly like his copy, and that made him smile, even if he didn't exactly know why that made him smile._

 _There was a box marked "At Your Own Risk"._

 _Funny girl, that Caroline, she was the one who had packed away all those things she thought he wouldn't want to see anymore after Elena had fell into a coma and Bonnie had decided to skip town._

 _Pocketknife in hand, he sliced through the layers of packing tape and stared down into the brown button eyes of a teddy bear. The stuffed animal had its stubby fur lined arms outreached toward him like it had laid on top of that stack- memorabilia of his slumbering lady love- waiting for him to open that box for six years._

 _He snorted as he reached for the thick leather journal underneath it, flipping through the empty pages._

 _He had only written Elena once. And after reading what he had written in the light of day, he winced after each line thinking he had turned into Stefan._

 _Everyone else could keep up the practice of writing her a diary, but not him. Elena wouldn't be surprised; she knew he was a lone wolf. And besides, he thought it was better to just catch her up on what he wanted her to know, skim over all those days that were just like all the other days, the many where he got nice and drunk and contemplated his existence and daydreamed about her like he had when she was his brother's true love._

 _Throwing the un-kept promise back into the box, he caught the hard stare of Mr. Cuddles._

" _Don't judge me."_

 _His cell phone vibrated against his leg; it was a collect call._

" _Damon?"_

 _It was her; she was at the airport, she was sorry for the short notice but she needed a ride and a place to stay and she wondered if she could crash with him for a while._

 _He nodded his head to her requests as 'A Love Supreme' played in the background._

 _DBDBDBDBDBD_

 _The airport was over an hour away and he tried to use that time to quell his excitement but the delight of surprise couldn't be contained._

 _After their meeting in New Orleans, when he was watching her leave the bar, he had believed that that would be the last time he would have a moment like that with Bonnie. Sure, he knew he would_ _ **eventually**_ _hear from her, and even see her again. She would be good for a Christmas card or a short email to catch up a year from now, and he presumed they would bump into each other in Mystic Falls when Caroline and Stefan finally decided to marry, but it would never be like how it was when they were in New Orleans._

 _He understood the magnitude of what had easily occurred between them back in New Orleans. It was pure magic. It had to be. Because he hadn't planned a stay in the city, he had had an unexpected overnight layover on his way to the Caribbean and decided to make the most of the day and stop being afraid of seeing the one person he longed to see that wasn't in a coffin, and then there was the darling part where she was willing to see him, even after all those years, even after all those things left unsaid, even after how they had left each other in Mystic. Magic. And he thought since that time with her was so fucking special that it wouldn't last, it had to have been just for those few hours. It was to be remembered as that time the gods shone down on them, throwing them a bone, here, here's your chance to heal a wound, kiss a scar, tell the other you're sorry, but that would be it. He would have to toss their serendipitous meeting in the ephemera with all the other hoped for objects._

 _But getting a collect call from a payphone from Bonnie Bennett saying that she needed him proved that he might be fucking all wrong._

 _He pulled into passenger pick-up and spotted her dressed in all black, standing next to an army green duffle bag with her hair pinned back severely, wearing black ray-bans even though it was night._

" _Bonnie."_

 _He smiled and her upper lip curved._

" _Thank you for coming to get me," She said softly._

 _His forehead folded, and his mouth opened to make a smart-ass remark. Like, what was he gonna do? Just let her sit at the airport? Come on, they were friends and so much better than that. But she had slipped the dark shades off her nose while he was grasping how to articulate his indignation and Damon did something he rarely did._

 _He bit his tongue._

 _They stood face to face while he glared at the dark concave bags under her swollen eyes and she waited for a joke._

 _But he threw the duffle bag over his shoulder and leaned down to kiss the top of her head, "It's okay Judgy, I'm gonna take care of you."_

 _DBDBDBDBDBDB_

 _She wasn't hungry._

 _What she was; was guarded and exhausted._

 _Damon had a million questions but knew it was best to let her spill out when she was ready._

 _He told her he would give her the grand tour in the morning and laid out towels and a robe in the bathroom for her._

 _While she showered, he flipped through albums, thinking about connecting his cd player so he could play Pearl Jam and they could reminisce about pancakes and 1994, but when he heard a hushed gasp of tears through the walls, he switched out the Coltrane for Billie Holiday and turned up the volume._

 _DBDBDBDBDBD_

" _Where will you sleep?" She asked, hair damp and still dripping onto the living room floor._

" _Out here," He said pointing to the couch as he counted the droplets on the stone floor and traced them to the rivulets running down her collar and over her bare skin under the robe._

" _Take this. It will help." He said, shaking a glass of bourbon._

 _She stared at him, "You think so?"_

" _When has liquor ever failed to solve a problem?"_

 _She laughed and the sound of her ran down his spine and reminded him of New Orleans._

" _What's that face?" She asked when he didn't say anything._

" _Nothing," He said quickly, "You want another drink?"_

 _And they drank and talked about traveling, places he had been, places she had been, and Damon played deejay, playing an album and telling her the story about when he first heard it, this one he had heard one morning after doing a bag of coke with Alice Cooper, or this is when he was going through an urban cowboy stage, but there was also the real story, like where was he living, and how far away was it from Stefan, every dust-covered album had a tale._

 _He dropped the needle to Sinatra and as old blue eyes sang about the wee small hours of the morning he finally asked Bonnie why she was in Italy._

 _And she told him she had to leave New Orleans because every corner had a memory and it broke her heart every time the sun came up over the Quarter._

 _He didn't ask her to explain or to go into detail; he just let the Sinatra play and listened for the imperfections._


	4. Shortline

"Christmas Eve," Damon repeats his brother's words, and his forehead crinkles, and then he says it again and then again, the inflection of his voice changing each time as he slowly recognizes the significance of the day.

He slurs a jumble of excuses, how he is a mess, how he's lost track of time, how he's lost his mind, and his ramble trails off as he steadies himself onto his feet and gazes at his brother.

Stefan sighs and presses his fingers into his older sibling's shoulder, "Don't worry, Caroline and I have already taken care of everything. Take a shower and I'll make us another pot of coffee before we leave."

 _He got crumbs from her over the following weeks._

 _Small pieces dropped to clue him on where to follow her._

 _Her story weaved around what she refused to speak about directly, taking him for long strolls into their shared past._

" _I can't believe you have Mr. Cuddles!" Her face was bright and shiny at the sight of her childhood toy. She clutched the teddy bear to her heart and closed her eyes, "You don't know how longed I looked for him, I thought I had lost him forever."_

 _Placing a plate of pancakes in front of the witch and filling her glass with more champagne than orange juice he told her how the bear had been safe and sound with him and that she should have contacted him, he knew where he was._

 _Their easy banter over breakfast began to cool as they both remembered why they didn't look for the other and Damon saved it all by poking fun at her still wanting her teddy bear at her age._

 _She fiddled with the bear, placing him on the table, "I wanted to give him to someone."_

" _Who?"_

 _She threw down more crumbs, and he bounded down an unexpected path._

He showers and dresses and thinks of how much blood would it take.

 _Their days became ritualized._

 _The position of the sun determined what sacred rite needed to be observed, whether it was their breakfast, always prepared by him, with her knees pressed up against her chest and a mimosa in her hand, telling him about some spell that went awry and turned her class into mutes for the day, or afternoons when the sun was at its highest point, and they would walk arm in arm through the cobble stone streets of the town, confusing the locals to think they were lovers, gazing into store-front windows and lounging at cafes, or when the sun disappeared for the moon, and Damon boiled pasta and made sauce, and poured wine, making sure they both had too much to drink, and then read her short stories and lines of poetry while sprawled on the couch, with her feet in his lap or her head nudged under his chin until he could hear her soft snore and he fell asleep himself, only to wake and start it all over again._

 _She helped him to sift through his possessions, deciding what belonged in the bedroom or the living room or the kitchen, there were many other rooms, but those were the only three of concern for them in those first two months, and the other taped boxes were shoved into those empty rooms._

 _She was the one to finish exhuming the contents in the box that Caroline had hid from him._

 _A delicate necklace was placed on the glass coffee table along with pictures and trinkets and even pressed flowers, and when she pulled out the leather journal with its telling torn page, she was stunned._

" _You never wrote to her?"_

 _He was about to give Bonnie the reason he had convinced himself of before she had arrived, how he was waiting to see Elena, how he wanted to be present with her when he recounted all that time he had spent missing her._

 _He answered her question with a question, "Do you write her?_

 _She tossed the journal back into box and picked up the glass of wine that he had told her to let breathe_

" _I wrote her every day at first. I would start each page with, 'Dear Elena', and it was about one good year that I tried to write about things that I thought would make her happy to know, make her glad about whatever sacrifice she thought she was made, but then I realized that I was fabricating a life that wasn't mine to please someone who would only be alive once I was dead. I felt like a tourist in my own life. So then I started to write about what was really going on, the destruction and the depression, but also the love, lots of love and the things that made me happy and optimistic about my own future, so technically I don't write to her every day, but I write every day, and the diaries will still be given to her when she wakes up but they will be all mine, every word will be me."_

 _She sipped the wine, "This is good, what is it?"_

 _And although he hadn't tasted the wine, he knew she was only half-right. It wasn't just good, the wine was fantastic, superb even, and it should have been, it was a rare bottle of Chateau Lafite that was over a hundred years old. It was supposed to be the celebratory drink to be had once he had found Katherine, and then after finding her and dealing with that betrayal, he had decided to save it for another cause of celebration; like when Elena looked over to him and said he was the only one, but that never quite happen, and then she was put into a coffin and the wine was pushed off to be uncorked when she woke up in another eighty years or so to finish out the soul connection he believed that existed between them._

" _I don't remember," He said drinking straight from the bottle._

Downstairs, Stefan tosses a warmed blood bag to his brother.

Damon tears into the plastic blood bag with his teeth and sucks, blood flowing over his gums and dribbling down his chin.

"We have to a make a stop on the way home."

Damon doesn't care, he drains the bag in hand and reaches for the other warm bag that Stefan has on the counter and drinks and drinks until the desire for her doesn't make him want to kill.

" _ **Love is so short, forgetting so long…"**_

 _It was Neruda, his favorite, and he was going to finish off the evening reading Neruda, something he didn't get to do much because she preferred Mary Oliver._

 _And his face was flush from downing copious amounts of Chianti, and listening to the hum of her blood flowing through her veins when she rolled her head over his bare shoulder, her lips gently brushing against his skin and asked, "How often do you think about blood?"_

 _His body responded to the press of her mouth, even if it wasn't meant to be sexual, even if it was only brief and unintended._

" _About as often as I think about sex," He smirked, closing the book and inching off of the couch. "But sex is easier to come by," He said replacing the book onto the shelf._

 _Her mossy green eyes darkened when they stared up at him, "When was the last time you drank from the vein?"_

 _And Damon lifted an eyebrow because he realized that he and Bonnie had become intimate without effort and that sudden realization changed everything._

 _Thinking of nothing else but blood and the feel of her lips, and wanting to push the thin straps of her tank off of her creamy shoulders and run his tongue over her graceful collar, he widened the space between them and told her that it was late and that it would be nice to have the couch to himself for once._

The Mystic Falls Mart is packed with all the last-minute shoppers, moms with screaming children trying to quickly fill their baskets with staples and then there were the dads who were sent out to fetch whatever missing ingredient a special dish called for at home.

Damon trails behind Stefan without a word.

There is some list that Stefan keeps talking about, something about Caroline needing a can of cranberry sauce, a package of rolls and milk.

The pair circumvent the traffic in each aisle to fill their cart with the three items, and Damon thinks about all that empty space, how they could have just carried these items in their hands.

"One last thing."

He follows his brother to the bakery and overhears Stefan tell the baker, an older man stuffed into a too-tight apron, that there was a pick up for Salvatore.

The man mumbles something to Stefan and produces a shiny white box on the glass counter.

Stefan thanks the man and places a round layered cake with bright pink icing and frosted rosettes framing the edges into their cart and begins to head to check out.

But Damon barks at Stefan to wait, his voice raspy and thin, and he quickly searches through the hanging racks of items under the pastry glass until he finds a thick candle shaped into a number one.

Author's Note

Again, I have no clue what I'm doing here. I'm just writing.


	5. Indecision

_He blinked, waiting for the indignation at his curt rejection but Bonnie only stretched her lips into that crooked smile he adored._

 _She gently patted the empty space on the couch next to her, "I know you are scared, Damon," she began softly, making him feel as if he was just gutted, and his insides were exposed and vulnerable, and he stared at her curiously, ready to refute the truth he was intent on hiding._

" _I am too," She continued, "I don't have forever like you, and after all what I have been through, all that I have lost, I learned I have to cherish every moment and say exactly what is on my heart."_

 _And he thought about how rare it was for most people to speak the truth, to call a thing a thing._

 _It was a gift she always had._

 _He stuffed his fists into his jean pockets, rocking lightly on the balls of his feet, nervous under the weight of that very moment. "Which is?"_

" _I'm in love with you." She stated and then gathered her hair into her hands and pushed the curls onto her right shoulder, "And I want to spend the rest of my time here with you, being real about how I feel and what I want, and what I want is for you not to run away from me, not to run away from us."_

 _And he moved tentatively at first, uncertain if he had fallen asleep on the couch with her in his arms and this was all just a delicious of dream, a consequence of all the wine and the smell of her snoring on his chest._

 _When he stood in front of her and placed his broad hand on the side of her exposed neck, she closed her eyes, biting down on her lip, anticipating him as she would have anticipated a lover._

" _Open your eyes," He ordered, still kneading her neck roughly, gripping her possessively. "Since we are being honest here," he started, baring himself into pools of green, "I want you, " He admitted to her wide grin that he didn't return because he was already thinking of the lost that was to eventually come. He crouched down on to his knees to reach her, face to face, with his hand still holding on to what he believed belong to him now that he claimed to the universe his desire, "But what happens next?"_

" _I don't know." She said breathlessly, her pupils widened with longing. A longing that was for him. And he smirks, because he had seen it before, many times actually, spanning all the way back to the night she saved their asses by faking her death under Klaus, and he laughs to himself how all that time he had never noticed._

 _She sighed when his mouth kissed the inside curve of her neck and her spine stiffened under his fingers as he braced her up against his chest. Her trembling turned him on and his fangs responded by running out to their full length as he grazed his mouth along caramel skin, lapping at streams of red running down on to her collar._

" _Damon."_

 _And he bit down, embedded his teeth into her veins, pulling her blood into him in waves, rocking her back and forth as he took her in his mouth._

 _Fresh Blood._

 _Blood from the source had a tendency to make him frenzied. Mad._

 _And witchy blood from a beautiful Bonnie made him ravenous._

 _He slid his hands in between her legs, positioning his fingers to please her while he feeds._

 _Her nails were creating crescents in his neck as she moaned in his ear how she wanted more, and that's all he needed to press her down into the couch, tugging at his belt and jeans to lay skin on skin, bloody mouth over mouth. He was wild. But he quickly thought he should turn back, get up now while he had a chance because there would be no satiating his appetite for her once he had a taste. And she wrapped her legs over his back inviting him, come to me she mouthed over his own, and he relented, and let himself fall._

DBDBDBDBDB

Stefan pulled the car into the driveway of Caroline's familial home. The house was tastefully decorated in all white lights and the front yard had a real sleigh filled with wrapped presents in the color scheme of white and gold. On the porch were the party attendees, laughing and drinking egg nog from punch bowl cups. From the car, Damon could make out the faces of Donovan and Lockwood, both grinning from ear to ear at a brunette who had her back turned to the driveway.

Damon snorted, "Could those two be any more obvious, I mean damn, doesn't Caroline have more than one single friend to invite to these shindigs so Donovan and Lockwood don't hang on that poor girl and look so desperate.

And as he opened the car door to walk straight to the kitchen to fill a carafe of whisky for him self, Stefan grips his arm.

"Damon, wait, we need to talk befo-

But Stefan was too late.

Donovan and Lockwood aware of the eldest Salvatore's arrival, looked over the porch railing, their jovial faces turning somber as the brunette turned around slowly, her warm doe-eyes settling on the disheveled vampire in the driveway.

Author's Note

Let's see if I can finish this before this Christmas!


	6. Without You

This was to be a special moment.

One for the books.

From those years when he would imagine their reunion, he would obsess over those warm brown eyes, thinking that as soon as life breathed back into her, the elation would be too much too contain.

She smiles and Damon is unresponsive.

Why did he ever think he was going to be elated? Was the occasion of reuniting with your sleeping beauty girlfriend to be a momentous occasion? Yes, certainly. But that euphoric feeling he had turned over and over in his brain when he was pining for her is not there, and he's appalled at himself for ever believing that there would be anything akin to euphoria for him ever again in a world without Bonnie in it.

The brunette fidgets and tucks her hair behind her ear when Stefan leads him to the bottom steps of the porch.

"I'm glad to see you here, Damon. I've been waiting to see you."

Damon scrunches his brow curiously at his moon and his stars, the light of his life and all that jazz.

"Waiting?" he turns the question over, not realizing that she didn't just claw herself up out of the dirt that morning to turn up at Caroline and Stefan's holiday party.

It had been months, three months to be exact for everyone to get used to her being back from the dead. They had time to process the switch. Bonnie for Elena. All the while his wife's death felt like it happened yesterday. Always yesterday. Day in, day out for 90 days, he never knew there was a breathing Elena walking around Mystic Falls because he avoided a funeral and all gatherings in his wife's memory, only coming out after dark to drink and feed until he could taste his victims heart give.

She wouldn't' like that. No his wife wouldn't.

He looks down at his hand and fingers a band of gold.

Caroline yells from inside the house for Elena's help and Elena excuses herself before their reunion could become any more awkward than it was.

Stefan holds the screen door open with the glossy box in hand, "Come on in, brother."

Damon musters a hello to Matt and Tyler, bypassing the other guests in the home for the kitchen, praying to any god that Caroline wasn't in the kitchen.

He opens cabinet after cabinet until he finds a stash hidden because he doesn't want to frighten his brother's guests by downing their spiked punch by sticking his head in it.

Bottle in hand he pours the bourbon into a red plastic cup, "She's alive," he laughs imitating, Dr. Frankenstein.

Stefan carefully places the cake on the counter and makes a drink as well, "I wanted to tell you a while back but.."

Damon waves his hand while he downs the contents of his cup and pours another, "I understand, brother. I mean, at one time this was to be the goddamn day, you know? The day I got Elena back and live happily ever after, yadda yadda yadda."

"We can never predict the future."

"Ain't that the truth," Damon snorts, filling his cup to the brim and then doing the same to Stefan's who motions his mouth to protest but acquiesces at the pain in his brother's narrowed eyes.

"I'm sorry. "

"Yeah, me too."

"Listen Damon, "Stefan starts, placing his hand on Damon's shoulder, "She doesn't want to upset you, so if this is too much, we all get it. Just let me know, and she and Donovan are gonna go to Lockwood's for have dinner. She realizes that tomorrow is not just Christmas for you."

"No, they don't have to do that. I'll be fine, just let me get a couple of drinks in me, okay?

Stefan kneaded his shoulder and nodded, "Good. I'll even finish two more of these with you," He smiled holding up the empty bourbon bottle.

Damon snorts and twirls his empty cup in his hand, "Where is she?"

And Stefan smiles and points his finger upwards. "

DBDBDBDBDBDB

 _Daylight._

 _The pair stirred only to wrap themselves around one another and make love again._

 _He held her, her cheek melded to his chest, playing with her tendrils, and the puncture wounds adorning her neck, thinking about fucking her again, and again, and again.._

 _Pulling her in closer, he tugged at her earlobe with his teeth, "Why did we wait so long? All those groundhog days in flannel purgatory, we could have passed the time doing this, all over the boardinghouse. You know, I had a sex swing in my closet in '94" He says wagging his brows, "We could have even video taped it."_

 _She snorted and side-eyed him, "Um, probably because you were in love with my best friend then, remember?"_

" _What does love have to do with these hips," He stated, biting down on his lip as he gripped her, moving her how he discovered he liked, "I mean if this is still a safe space for honesty, then I will be say that there wasn't a time that I wasn't sexually attracted to you, Judgy."  
_

 _She playfully slapped him, "So not cool."_

" _Hey I didn't act on it, "He grinned, impishly and genuinely all at once, "But I'm a man, and you are gorgeous. I obviously did a bang up job hiding it cause you never thought of me twice."_

 _Bonnie curled up her lip, "Well, that's not entirely true."_

" _Really?"_

" _I mean, spending all that time alone with you wasn't a piece a cake because of us being stuck on the other side, but of how close we were becoming there. I felt guilty for feeling anything for you other than protective out of my loyalty to Elena."_

 _Damon smiled, drinking in Bonnie, her honesty and her open heart, and his own heart swells but reaches for the familiar._

" _You were in love with me then, weren't you?"_

" _Shut your mouth." She says getting up from his embrace, the sunlight pouring over her brown body._

 _Trying to walk away, he yanked her back to the couch and quickly flipped her under him, pinning her with his weight. He held her face between his hands, "You know that I love you?'_

" _Do you?"_

" _Very much," He nodded, " So now I need to know what happens next?"_

" _You get maybe 80 years with me and then Elena and I pass the baton."_

 _He frowned, "You know what I meant, even though we will need to discuss that too. "_

 _Her face became somber and she ran her fingers through his har, "Why do you need a guarantee?"_

" _I like sure things. And uncertainty makes me crazy. I'm not gonna go through the coquettish games like I did with Katherine and Elena."_

" _I told you that I was in love with you, isn't that enough."_

 _He pulled her fingers from his hair and scrambled to his feet, "No, where are they?"_

" _Outside of Moscow."_

" _For how long?"_

" _Our communication is strained as to be expected with our situation. But they will eventually end up in the Alps before spring, he said he would arrange for me to see them for an hour in a private lodge. "_

" _No trade-off?"_

" _Not this trip, but in the summer we will meet up and then it will be my turn, I don't care how he feels. "_

 _And then you'll be the one zig-zagging the world with your life in danger."_

" _It's not my life that's in danger, Damon."_

 _He was irritated, how quickly love changed things and here he was staring down at the petite witch, wondering at what point did he give her all the cards._

" _Answer me this, Bonnie. You really think I'm going to pretend everything is rainbows and unicorns for the next few months until you disappear from my life for however long and be okay with that?"_

 _She stared up at him, "All of this is temporary; you have me for now and then eventually you'll have Elena. From my point of view, you are winning._

 _And she reached for her clothes on the floor and dressed while he looked on at the sun through the glass doors unable to ask another a complicated question._

Author's Note

Thank ya'll for reading and reviewing. And I'm glad ya'll trust me to lead this story somewhere. Hopefully we end up at a satisfying end.


	7. The Night Me And Your Mama

_The small hamlet in the valley of the Swedish Alps was buried under snow. The thick ice covered storefront etchings and seemed to grow up from the ground, creating frozen barriers around homes and doorways._

 _The town was boarded up and desolate for the season save for a hulking wooden lodge at the top of the hill overlooking the powdery skyline of the town._

 _Inside of the common area of the lodge was the typical animal skin décor; an oversized fireplace with a roaring fire and a single compelled human who tended to the flames also while catering to Damon's whims._

 _The man chatted idly, wondering aloud why he had stayed behind instead of traveling to the south of Italy like he usually did at this time of year._

 _Damon was waiting. Knee bouncing, thoughts racing and bottle finishing, waiting._

 _She had told him she was only to be gone for an hour, and she was deeply saddened by it but there was too much risk to wish for more time, even under the veil of a charmed snow-covered town in the mountains._

 _Damon looked down at his watch. She had five more minutes before it would be on the hour._

 _Howling wind sung though the cracks and crevices and Damon thought of what if this was to be the end._

 _He couldn't compete with this male. There was no fight. The love she possessed for this mythic being trumped all, even him._

 _The hand on his watch revealed the hour. Still no Bonnie._

 _And the cold that had found itself into the lodge, wrapped its blue fingers around his heart._

 _But true to her word, she did come back. 15 minutes late._

 _She had come in with the wind, escorted by a vampire she called Marcel._

 _Damon enveloped her into his arms and kissed the top of her head looking over into the ink-colored eyes of the escort._

" _Thank you for making sure she got back to me safely," Damon expressed without warmth, stressing the 'me'._

 _The other vampire smiled wide and assured Bonnie he would see her soon before departing._

" _There's no reason to be mad at Marcel, there's no reason to be mad at anyone but me really," She said once she was snuggled under his arms in front of the fire._

 _Damon thought he reasons to be mad at whoever the hell he wanted you, in particular the vamp who swaggered in with his woman deserved his malice, but he entertained Bonnie and asked, "Why you?"_

" _Because you were fine, and I come and disrupt your life and.."_

 _Damon snorted, "First off, I'm never "fine"", he said motioning his fingers into air quotations, "And secondly, fuck, you and I both know there isn't a secondly, you know as well as I do that there is no life to disrupt without you."_

 _He felt the warmth of tears soak through this shirt._

 _Damon didn't know how to navigate this territory, it was completely out of his experience, which was interesting and scary for him, to have a new path to forge in his over a century of existence. But he sighed and lifted the witch from his chest so he could be brave and look into the green._

 _He sighed and pushed back the sweaty tendrils from her forehead, "I know that if it comes down between me or him, its always going to be him, I get it," He stated, his voice cool and low, "But that's the risk I'm willing to take to have you, and I've never been much of sharer, but I'm willing to share you, and if it comes down to it, I'm ready to give up this great life of my olive crops, fast cars and models to spend it with you."_

 _There was a choke of laughter and tears that bubbled up from her, and he smiled, deeply and from his heart._

 _DBDBDBDBDBDBDB_

Damon stares up the carpeted staircase, the dark hall waiting for him at the top landing. He can hear their distinct voices, one jolty and forcing cheery, the other raspy and grave.

He catches their cautious remarks to one another, imagining them using mostly facial expressions to convey the true meaning behind their words.

They are whispering but he can hear them perfectly on the second floor.

"Not since Bonnie died."

That was Caroline to Elena.

Damon turns the sentence over in his mind. Not since Bonnie died. It feels surreal, absurd even.

He puts one anxious foot on to the bottom step and ascends the staircase, and overhears them immediately switch the conversation to lighter things, to New Year's plans as they are aware that someone is coming.

Before reaching the landing, he thinks maybe he should have waited until the end of the dinner when everyone had gone home or to bed so he could have real time with her and not have an entire house full of people listening in on what he had to say to her.

Bravery was never his shtick. That was Bonnie.

And Bonnie would be heartbroken to know he is avoiding her, and has been avoiding her it seems, even if he was too grief stricken to know what he had done.

What could he possibly say to her now? I missed and needed you as much as you might have missed and needed me, I just didn't know it?

He pushes himself forward, inching down the hall until he knocks on the guest room's cracked open door opposite Damon and Caroline's bedroom.

Caroline and Elena say come in in unison.

Sticking his hands into his pockets, he rocks back and forth on his heels, "Sorry to interrupt the gossip, but I thought I might have a moment alone with her."

Caroline flashes her big blue concerned eyes at him, and then at Elena, "Of course, Damon," She says rising from the plush pink settee adorned in ruffles and lace, "I'll be in the Kitchen if you need me, okay?" She stresses.

His mouth stretches into something that resembles a smile as she pats him on the shoulder on her way out.

Elena sighs, and he averts his eyes to the pictures on the wall, hating their sweet saccharine messages and himself for not living up to all the promises he had given her.

"Do you want me to close the door?" Elena asks him, breaking through the fog of his self-pity to where he could see her, and her bright shining smile at the sight of him.

"Yes, " he says so softly that if Elena hadn't been a vampire she wouldn't have heard him.

And he's left all alone with her, with one of the greatest loves of his life, and he feels pressure behind his eyes and under this ribcage.

He reaches for her soft hand gripping the rail of her crib and caresses her plump cheek, "Ava," he says gently and it produces a gurgle of words and smiles and stomping of little feet.

And something breaks inside of him because she knows exactly who he is and from her excitement and open arms, she doesn't care what he has or hasn't done.

He swoops her up into his arms, holding her up in the remainder of the winter light spilling into the petal pink room.

She was the spitting image of him.

Thick curls and tendrils as dark as a raven feathers frame her face and apple cheeks and her eyes were feline like his, and just as blue, dark and striking, just like his, and just like his they became murkier based on her mood.

The only bit of Bonnie was her contribution to Ava's heart-shaped face but Damon believed that her personality would prove to be more like her mother.

The world could deal with a replica of his arresting good looks, but another him in temperament and character? There would be pitchforks and stakes waiting outside their porch every day she returned from pre-school.

He laughs to himself remembering Bonnie telling him over and over as she pointed to her round belly that this baby was going to be his match.

"Don't be like me," He warns, half joking.

Her eyelashes flutter over her smooth cheek and he pulls her into him, snuggling her close under his chin. Inhaling the crisp sent of power and baby lotion, he closes his eyes and gently rocks from side to side, remembering when she was born and the joy that could not be contained inside of him, and how for the that moment upon her arrival into this world, he wanted the entire planet to feel combustible, to be drunk on happiness and the ache of love just like him.

Author's Note

Trying to wrap this up nicely.


	8. Nobody Knows

Upon their return from the Alps, they found frost had dared to kill Damon's first crop.

Bonnie said she was tired and went to bed.

Damon poured over Internet forums and books, driving back and forth into town to obtain whatever device or concoction that was recommended to save his venture.

Bonnie drank. A lot.

Damon considered locking up his liquor cabinets but thought about how much of a hypocrite he would be to open it for himself to finish a bottle or two, like he did when he finally uprooted one of the trees to see how much damage had been done at the root.

When he saw the black veins of the tree, he believed all had been lost.

After he pulled up that tree they fought for days; over silly things, trivial things and big things too.

And then one morning, an elder neighbor, a former olive farmer came by to check on the young couple with the silhouettes of trees.

He took out his pocket knife and hacked at the bark, cutting a piece to put into his mouth and told Damon how to make something dead come back to life.

"Ancora buono."

Damon got to work, following the farmer's wisdom, from dusk until dawn, and when he was done, he read poetry to his despondent lover, cooked her meals and ran her baths until she no longer wanted to fight.

He crawled into bed, the bed she had been in for over a month and told her that he knew what it felt like to want to give up, and she could if she wanted to, but she could only give up when she was feeling good, when she was smiling.

They made love.

And then the season changed.

And the olives came in.

And Bonnie smiled.

And he remembers the mirth between them at that time. Him, fresh out of the shower, and her standing in the bathroom with him, bent over the pedestal sink, brushing her teeth, rubbing her calf with her bare foot in her flimsy nightgown and that moment when he heard it, it was a singular rapid thump, a drum beat, a speck of the universe growing inside of her.

DBDBDBDBDBDB

Stefan knocks as he opens the nursery door, "I brought this," he shakes a sippy-cup with warm milk, "Caroline's orders."

"I missed the transition from bottle to big girl cup, " Damon looks on at his brother with widened eyes, "What else did I miss? If you tell me she has called your forehead Da-Da or Blondie down there Mama then I will set this house on fire."

"Don't worry, she's resorted to calling me 'Fan and she hasn't formed a name for Caroline yet, Caroline thinks its because her name is harder, but I think the kid is working on something good."

"Its not nice to make fun of your wife Stefan." He grins; glad to hear his and Bonnie's place had not been stolen in his daughter's heart.

Damon snuggles his daughter who has relaxed back into the comfort of her father's arms, with her Dora the Explorer sippy cup tilted up.

Stefan reaches over and tousles silky black curls and Damon smiles up at his brother and before he is able to open his mouth to express his heartfelt gratitude, Stefan cuts him off, "Don't. We're family and she has been a bit of sunshine for everyone around here."

Damon brushes his lips on the crown of Ava's head while he rocks her in his arms, "You know after having Ava, I finally understood Bonnie. I hadn't loved anyone more than you and Bonnie before, so I didn't exactly get that you would trade it all for your kid."

"Not even Elena?"

"I obsessed over Elena, but that wasn't this, " he snorts, "I should apologize to her for all the shit I put her through."

Stefan snorted, "Maybe save that conversation for another holiday, like Valentine's."

Damon laughs and the light reaches his eyes as he hugs Ava closer to him, " I'm an asshole. What can I say?"

Taking Ava's stuffed elephant from her crib, Stefan squats down to Ava's eye level and pushes it into her hands, "You are going to need this, she has to sleep with it."

Damon crinkles his brow, ready to retort, but then sighs, thankful at his brother always knowing his next move, "I won't take her tonight, we have to celebrate her birthday, and I'm sure Caroline has put all of her anxious energy into making sure it's the best damn party any one year old has ever had."

"There will be a clown."

"A clown? Doesn't she know clowns are fucking terrifying?"

"This is a French clown."

"So Cirque du Scary?"

The sippy-cup falls onto the floor from the slack mouth of the sleeping child and the brothers laugh.

And the doorbell rings downstairs and Stefan complains aloud that whoever has shown up now will be throwing his wife into a tizzy because at this hour they are a surprise guest and she only has the table set for twelve.

The baby stirs in her dreams and Damon rises slowly, cradling her head on his shoulder, "Too bad Ava's asleep, she's gonna miss her Auntie cutting someone for messing up her party."

Caroline appears at the door, forehead creased and mouth stretched into a painful line, and tells the eldest Salvatore that there is someone outside waiting to speak to him.

Author's Note

For those wondering, this story will have a happy ending


	9. Love Me In Whatever Way

_Bonnie was adjusting a boutonniere on his lapel, a clipped red rose, when the pin had pricked her finger, and beads of blood began to bleed into his white pocket square._

 _Wincing, she jerked her hand away. He could tell she was anxious and ready to give up on the whole idea if he said the word._

 _He winked and took her hand into his and placed her bloody finger between his lips._

 _They were a scene to behold in the ancient chapel._

 _The vampire and his witch._

 _At the stroke of midnight he escorted the very pregnant Bonnie, looking like some Springtime Goddess in her snug white gown and braided hair, down the candlelit aisle to pledge his love and loyalty and all that jazz._

 _The priest cleared his throat and looked on at the pair with dazed eyes, "Do you, Damon Salvatore take this woman to be your_ _lawfully wedded wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do you part?"_

 _Smiling down at Bonnie, Damon experienced a rush to the head, an otherworldly feeling as he held her hands in his and he thought she was the most beautiful thing ever to soon belong to him with her crooked smile and big wondrous green eyes._

 _So this was bliss._

" _I do."_

 _Their housekeeper dabbed at her eyes and expressed her joy at their union in Italian under her breath._

 _At the villa they had cake and champagne._

 _Damon over served the priest and played rare jazz albums as they discussed everything other than how he liked to drink blood, while the housekeeper helped Bonnie unbraid her hair and toss petals on what was now to be known as her and Damon's marriage bed._

 _After the priest had given the housekeeper a ride back into town, Bonnie wanted to call Caroline and Stefan and give them the news, but Damon pulled her onto his lap and told her it would have to wait until the morning._

 _They sat under the moon in the backyard, her nestled under his chin and in his arms, as he drank from the expensive French champagne bottle._

" _I've been thinking. After the squirt gets here, maybe we should think about moving back to Mystic Falls."_

" _When did you get so sentimental?"_

 _And he considered her question thinking of a time before Katherine and all the blood and guts._

" _I never thought it could be possible for me to have a wife, and a kid, and here I am. All domesticated. But a long time ago, I used to want to have a big family, like seven kids and I wanted to have a farm as grand as my father's, preferably bigger and without the captive help, but not far from Stefan. And I imagined our families spending gatherings and holidays together," He said, his voice trailing as he recalled that dusty memory, " Why are you giving me that look?"_

 _Bonnie beamed at him, "Of course you would be the one to want a farm and wife and a passel of kids. I can't believe I missed that about you. I thought I was on to you. Damon."_

" _Pfft, on to me, baby?" He said, crinkling his face, " I'm Mr. Mysterious, there's a lot you don't know about me woman."_

" _Suuurrreeee, Damon. "_

" _I want that too, Damon. "_

" _You do?" He exclaimed, his voice cracking from excitement, "We could make Mystic safe, the coven doesn't know who I am from any other vampire, and there has to be a ton of magic you can pull from your ancestral land. It's there that we could secure a real home for our little family. And with Stefan, Goldilocks, Fur ball and Kid Sheriff there we could make it our very own haven._

 _She laughed, "Did you just refer to Mystic Falls as a haven? "_

" _You're right. I'm being delusional."_

 _She laughed and tilted her head back to kiss her husband square on the mouth, "No, you're being hopeful and I love it."_

DBDBDBDBDBDB

Rebekah is standing at the threshold of the opened front doorframe glaring up at him as he descends quickly down the stairs.

He slams the door behind him.

"Why the hell are you here?" He spits; grabbing her by the arm, ready to toss her off the front porch.

"Nice to see you too, Damon. You look like shit."

"You have exactly three minutes to tell me why you are here before I rip your heart from your chest."

He grimaces and his blue eyes darken as he notices the parked Mercedes sedan on the street with the limo-tinted windows.

The engine is still running and he can detect two heartbeats in the vehicle.

The icy- blonde rolls her eyes and bats Damon's hand from her arm, "He wants to see her, Damon."

"I don't care what he wants, Rebekah. Now turn right around and take your ass back wherever you were hiding. You are putting everyone at risk by coming here."

"The Garden Coven is dead remember? We were both the-

"Yeah along with my wife."

Car doors slam open and shut, the passenger side of the driver and the backseat.

Another blonde rounds the vehicle and walks up the driveway and behind her trails the other occupant of the car.

Damon barely acknowledges the other blonde as she explains that she is Rebekah's long lost sister and she's a witch and blah blah blah because all he can see is Bonnie, her crooked smile and her big wondrous green eyes approaching him on the face of a little boy.

Author's Note

SPOILER ALERT::::DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RUIN THE STORY::::

I don't want to ruin the story for ya'll but considering this is one of the most emo stories I have ever written I thought I could at least assure some of you that Bonnie will be making an appearance again.


	10. The Present

He resembles every photo Bonnie had ever shown him and every story she had gushed over.

The boy approaches the three of them, his furrowed brow and demeanor revealing a solemnity far beyond his eight years. Narrowing his intense green eyes at Damon, he straightens his scrawny shoulders in his fitted navy blue pea coat and ironed jeans, holding a tattered Mr. Cuddles firmly under the pit of his arm.

And Damon smiles to himself thinking of the care and consideration he had taken in following Bonnie's orders in painting and decorating a room in their villa with plastic superheroes and ceiling painted constellations in preparation for his eventual stay and how ridiculous this young man would look in that room now.

The other blonde prattles off an introduction, Damon hears her say the name Freya and that Elijah and Kol were waiting back at the hotel. She offers Damon a tense smile and then places a hand on the boy's back, a loving gesture that Damon notices doesn't relax the spine of the boy, but only seems to make him stand taller.

She then runs a loving hand through his coarse sandy blonde curls and says, "Damon, this is Gabriel."

DBDBDBDBDB

" _How do you feel about the name Taylor?_

" _Nope, absolutely not." He said caressing Bonnie's head in his lap, her brassy curls splayed over his legs, "No Taylor or Tristan or Blake. I hate guy names on girls."_

" _Excuse Damon, but what exactly makes a name a guy's name?"_

 _He rolled his eyes and playfully placed his hand over his wife's open mouth all revved up to give him another lecture on misogyny when they were interrupted from enjoying the Tuscan sunset on his birthday by the unexpected footfall of a visitor at the front door._

 _He told Bonnie to stay behind while he responded to the knock only he could hear from their picnic out in the orchard behind the villa._

 _It was the vampire from the lodge. Marcel. He was dressed in a grey summer suit and smiling with a paper-wrapped box in his hands._

" _I picked this up in town, I didn't want to come empty handed since learning a Congratulations was in order," He said, clamping his hand around Damon's forearm._

 _It was a cloying insincere gesture especially since he didn't know for which the vampire was congratulating, their nuptials or the pregnancy, and particularly because either were not knowledge to anyone but the priest and their housekeeper and two vampires residing in Mystic Falls._

' _Damon?" Bonnie called out to him as she entered the living area from the sliding doors of the back patio, "Who is it."_

" _A friend of yours."_

DBDBDBDBDB

 _Damon paced the length of the living area; uncharacteristically quiet as he looked on at his wife, perched stately on the sofa, still wearing the flower crown, the white petals still fresh and refusing to wilt in her hair. She rubbed her protruding belly in circles as she listened to Marcel explain his reason for a visit._

" _When were you going to tell him?"_

 _The present, wrapped in robins egg blue paper sat squarely in the middle of the coffee table between the vampire and the witch, and Damon poured himself a tumbler of bourbon letting his mind wonder to what could it be._

 _An engraved picture frame?_

 _A silver rattle?_

" _You came all this way to ask me that, Marcel," She said genuinely smiling at the henchman, " We both know he wouldn't have been very agreeable if I would have dropped this news in a text or a letter, I had plans on telling him when I see him in two a half weeks. I'm supposed to meet them in Lisbon to bring Gabriel back here for the next three months. But you already know all of that, so why are you here, Marcel?"_

 _The vampire cleared his throat and then there was a pause. Damon heard it and Bonnie responded to it, he could see her lean a bit more forward from the couch._

" _He doesn't feel comfortable with Gabriel being away from him and he-"_

 _Bonnie interrupted him by hurling one of the throw pillows at his head, "You've got to be fucking kidding me, Marcel. He can't keep me away from my son!"_

 _Marcel held up his hands in defense of more throw pillows, and yelled out, "Let me finish, Bonnie! He's not trying to keep you away from Gabriel. But the dire reality is you keeping secrets are the reason the cloaking spell failed in Venice. Three of the coven witches killed our decoy, they thought it was him standing on the balcony and it collapsed into the water and then they set the building on fire with the false intel that there was a young boy alone in the house._

 _Damon eyes his wife, expecting her to gaze into his, expecting her to reach for him in this moment when she heard that her failure of keeping up the a spell allowed the Coven an opportunity to kill her son, but she doesn't even blink in his direction._

 _But he observes the emerald of her eyes turn as dark as moss._

" _As you can see, I'm pregnant. The baby must be taking up more of my magic than I had anticipated." She frowned. " And there is no way in hell he's going to just give him to me now."_

" _You know him as well as I do."_

" _Do I?" She posed, "Well look, the exertion of cloaking spells is too much for me to keep up with in multiple locations around the world even if I weren't pregnant, but I am, and I need Gabriel here with me, with me he will be completely protected because I can focus all of my energy on him, and you can tell your boss he can keep up the façade that we are on the run by traipsing around the world with his decoys to throw the coven off. "_

" _This is not just about Gabriel, Bonnie. After what transpired in Venice, he is deeply concerned about your wellbeing and is troubled that you are in this town without his protection."_

 _She snorted and began to pull the flower buds from her hair, "Be sure to remind him that it was me that protected him and his wretched family before he decided to engage himself and then kill a Garden Coven witch, so I don't need protection, but if I did I have someone," She said waving her wedding ring on her hand, "Damon is with me."_

 _Marcel looked over Damon and Damon held up his glass and drunkenly wagged his brows._

" _I think you should consider seeing your son when you are no longer in a compromising condition, " Marcel said to Bonnie, "Showing up in Lisbon like this will only upset the harmony and give the coven leverage._

" _No, "Bonnie said shaking her head, " I haven't seen my baby since February, before this, I had never even slept a night away from him and I'm not gonna go more than the two weeks of not seeing him."_

" _He's not going to like this."_

" _I don't care what Klaus likes."_

 _Marcel nodded and stood abruptly. He placed a firm hand on the present and pushed it to the edge of the table in Bonnie's direction, "Your cloaking spell doesn't work here either," He stated as a matter of fact buttoning his suit jacket, "I found her conjuring in a hotel near the town square."_

 _After Marcel had left and Bonnie retired to take a long bath Damon had finally opened the beautifully wrapped gift and saw the leathery severed tongue of a Garden Coven witch._

Author's Note

Thank you for sticking with me on this story.


End file.
